Content

1. MICE Industry

2. MICE Destinations

3. Meeting People

4. Business Contacts

5. Cultural Differences

6. Negotiations

7. Presentations

8. Meetings / Conferences

9. Exhibitions

10. VIP Treatment

11. Entertaining your business client / Banquet Arrangement

12. Familiarization trips

13 Useful Terms in the MICE-Industry

Bibliography

Answers

Unit 1 MICE Industry

Task 1. Read the text below. Pay attention to underlined words.

The Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) segment of tourism caters to such corporate programmes tailor-made to suit the client's requirements in any part of the world. The size of the convention, facilities required, competitive pricing, natural attractions, safety and opportunities to shop are some of the factors considered before selecting a MICE destination. MICE - the new form of business tourism is the fastest growing section of the International tourism market and one of the fastest growing segments within the tourism industry generating millions in revenues for cities and countries. Europe and United States still remain the major markets worldwide in respect of the number of meetings, conferences and exhibitions.

It caters to various forms of business meetings, International conferences and conventions, events and exhibitions and is slowly but steadily capturing every big hotelier's attention. This is therefore a business-oriented segment, involving obligatory (or non-discretionary) travel. The Incentives part of MICE is the odd one out – though it is related to business, as it is usually provided to employees or dealers/distributors as a reward, it tends to be leisure based.

MICE tourism is the new buzzword in the international tourist market and relates to various business groups and individual travelers. The importance of the MICE industry lies in the fact that it converts the annual business meetings and conferences into a glamorous and enjoyable event for the delegates and attendants.

Be it a meeting to bring people together either from within one company or from a broader spectrum or an international conference of 100 delegates or product launch party or exhibition, MICE tourism finds itself being inevitable in all the occasions.

Brief Profile of Consumers:

Varies considerably – although is slightly skewed towards the 30-45 age group, and around 65% male.

Research problems within the MICE industry The MICE industry is faced with many problems. There is a need to improve the collection of data within the MICE industry. The lack of coverage and reliability of statistics is seen as a crucial limitation to the future development of the MICE industry. One of the main reasons for the formation of the MRU is to provide some academic standards, and to form some clarity within the MICE research.

There is a lack of standardized terminology that often leads to confusion as different industry bodies used different definitions, and terms. Without international or national guidance, the collection of statistics is left to the various trade associations, which invariable only collect data on their members, leading to biased results. Numerous venues or service providers collect MICE statistics, however, not all MICE venues have the technology, finance, time or facilities to collect and analyze data. A range of different organizations, such as the ICCA, EVA, SITE, UIA, collects MICE statistics however, these statistics are not directly comparable due to different definitions and sample sizes have been used. It is a major problem that there is no single body for data collection due to the fragmentation of the industry. Within this paper there are contradictions on the size, scale and value of the industry, this is due to different organizations using different definitions and carrying out surveys on small samples of the industry, often restricted to members of their organizations. One of the aims of the MRU is to reduce such problems by not restricting the sample size of the surveys by members only.

The term ‘MICE’ is often used as a generic term. When examining 'MICE' data, often on closer inspection, the data actually refers only to the conventions and exhibitions market and often excluded for example the incentive sector. Definitions are often used interchangeably and indiscriminately, which makes it difficult to be precise about what actually is being measured. One of the aims of the MRU is to suggest new definitions that could be used on a worldwide scale.

Trends that will affect the meetings industry:

According to Meetings Professional International (MPI), the total number of meetings planned, proposal activity, the number of attendees per meeting/event and expenditures per meeting/event are all likely to increase in 2006. Additionally, client-side planners expect to receive a larger share of their organizations’ budgets in 2006 than in 2005. Yet, respondents remain cautious due to concerns about the general economy and the rising costs of oil and travel.

•Meetings are becoming a valued tool for furthering organizational objectives and success, with a majority of client-side meeting planners indicating that meetings are considered important within their organizations.

•The growth in international meetings travel predicted for 2005 is not expected to continue into 2006.

•Across the board, and across the world, workload topped the list of internal factors impacting the meetings function in 2006. External factors such as rising oil costs also weigh on the meetings function.

Top 5 Internal/ Organizational Trends

•Workload

•Organizational budget changes

•Shifting organizational goals/strategies

•Organizational growth

•Shorter lead times

Top 5 Environmental Trends

•Economy

•Travel Costs

•Cost of Oil/Gas

•Changes in Technology

•Increasing Globalization

Differences among markets:

In North America significant growth is predicted in both the number of events and also in budgets. Time constraints, security and environmental concerns are high in North Americans’ agenda. Economic trends are overtaking the cost of events.

In Europe the growth will still be maintained as far as the numbers of events is concerned but the increase will not continue in the budgets. Cost and ROI remains high in Europeans’ agenda.

Within Asia, China is showing an increasing demand for incentives and Vietnam is predicted to be a strong competitor for Singapore in the near future.

To encourage Middle Eastern and other business travellers to stage or expand their business events in Singapore, the Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau – a group of the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), has launched a new set of initiatives to help drive the growth, volume and caliber of business events staged in the country. The initiatives aim to rally the MICE (Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conventions and Exhibitions) industry to meet the targets envisioned for the Business Travel and MICE (BTMICE) sector in the Tourism 2015 strategic blueprint and to establish Singapore as the ideas exchange capital of the world.

Virtual Meetings and Technology in MICE Industry in the world that terrorist alerts and economic trends are a common sense many corporations are adopting the e-conferences as a solution to save money and time. Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in US and Europe are using more often the tele-seminars and virtual meetings in order to eliminate travel expenses.

Virtual meetings are becoming more popular as business executives are hungry to learn and stay on top of the latest trends. On the other hand, as virtual meetings are still on a new trend there are no significant statistical data.

On the other hand, technology plays a vital role in the MICE business not as a replacement of the face to face experience of meetings but as a mean of facilitating the meetings and event’s organizers, exhibitors and planners. New technology tools are being launched in MICE exhibitions around the world to help buyers or meeting planners to do their job in more effective way.

In Australia the Melbourne’s Meetings and Convention Bureau says that technology ensures that ‘Wow’ factor in entertainment and spectacular functions for incentive groups.

Climate Awareness in the MICE business:

Climate changes and carbon emissions in particular are high in the MICE agenda. Many associations in US, especially the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) are trying to steer the industry to adopt a ‘greener’ policy.

The industry is definitely now turning towards a greener approach as associations are cooperating and promoting conferences centres, hotels and airlines which adopt environmental – friendly practices.

Surveys indicate that companies who adopt a ‘green’ policy can actually save money using methods which can really reduce costs and drive to a lowering of carbon emissions.

Statistics on the development of MICE industry:

According to the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) 5,283 registered events took place in 2005, a rise of 479 over 2004.

As we can see on ICCA’s global ranking, USA and Europe dominate in the MICE business, with Vienna ranking first in the meeting industry followed by Singapore and Barcelona in the second and third place respectively.

There were no changes in the first three places in the countries’ table compared to 2004 as USA, Germany and Spain maintained their position. United Kingdom has managed to surpass France climbing to the fourth place. It is worth mentioning that Australia remained 8th and Switzerland is a newcomer in the global ranking taking 10th place.

Main Source Markets:

The main source markets are the main industrial countries in Europe and North

America. However, there is significant growth from emerging markets such as

Brazil, Russia, India and China.

• United States

• Germany

• United Kingdom

• France

• Italy

• Spain

• Scandinavia

Emerging Markets:

• Brazil

• Russia

• India

• China

Estimate of Global Market Size:

Various sources report that the MICE market is worth around $30 billion a year

worldwide. Some countries rely heavily on the MICE segment – 30% of Singapore’s tourism revenue is from MICE, and Malaysia is specifically targeting the MICE

market, running schemes such as the Meet and Experience campaign.Worldwide, at least 50 million trips are taken each year for MICE purposes.

Potential for Growth:

The MICE segment is exhibiting encouraging growth potential, with Russia, Indiaand China likely to drive the market. In 2006, Brazil made the International

Congress and Conference Association top ten for meetings organised in that

country, and was the first from the so called BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China –

countries with rapidly growing economies) countries to do so.

Companies tend to choose meeting locations based upon their core business

values and relative expensiveness. They do not stray too far from their

headquarters. The incentives market is slightly more diverse with firms liable to

send employees to more exotic long haul destinations. An increasing recognition

that motivational programmes are important for staff retention means that the

incentives market will increase in the coming years.

Whilst the MICE market is expected to continue to exhibit moderate growth, it is

dependent upon the prevailing economic circumstances. A confident market will

lead to more meetings and incentives whilst a nervous market is liable to have the

opposite effect.

Task 2. Match the words to their definitions

glamorous buzzword to cater to capture incentive convention inevitable event attendant 10.exhibition

a) events at which products and services are displayed b) anything that happens, especially something important or unusual c) to succeed in getting something when you are competing with other people d) beautiful and smart, esp in a showy way e) certain to happen and unable to be avoided or prevented f) someone whose job is to travel or live with an important person and help them g) to provide, and sometimes serve, food h) a word or expression from a particular subject area, that has become fashionable by being used a lot, especially on television and in the newspapers i) a large formal meeting of people who do a particular job or have a similar interest, or a large meeting for a political party j) something which encourages a person to do something

Task 3. Questions to discuss.

1. What does the abbreviation MICE refer to?

2. What is INCENTIVE tourism?

3. How can an Exhibition be defined?

4. How far is MICE industry important?

5. What MICE market is one of the major markets worldwide?

(American, Asian, Russian, European, African)

6. Are there any problems within MICE industry?

7. Is technology vitally important in MICE industry? Why?

Task 4. Reading. Sum up the following text according to the following key points:

1. Business travel is an important sector of the UK tourist industry.

2. The importance of the UK as a Conference Destination.

3. The UK Exhibition Sector.

4. The UK Incentive Sector.

5. The influence of competition on the UK tourist industry.

6. MICE Industry in London.

7. MICE organizations in London.

8. MICE industry in London.

9. Why does London remain a key MICE destination?

10. Factors influencing London’s Success as a MICE Destination.

11. The MICE sector throughout the UK today.

Business travel which is an important sector of the UK tourism industry, as defined by the British Association of Conference Destinations (BACD), includes tourists who attend conferences, trade fairs, exhibitions, incentive travel, corporate hospitality and business (or individual corporate) travel (BACD factsheet 3 September1999). In 1997, the BACD estimated that 6.3 million overseas business visitors came to the UK, and spent a total of £3,501 million. UK residents took 15.4 million business trips in the same year and spent in total £2,475 million. The British Tourism Authority (BTA) predicts an annual growth rate for all visits to the UK at 7.3%, with a slightly slower growth rate of 6.1% for business tourism until 2010 (BACD Factsheet 4, September 1999. P.6). The expenditure patterns and the envisaged growth within the sector, one can say that business tourism is an importance income generator to the UK’s economy.

The UK has become a significant player in the global conference industry. For the year 2000, the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) estimated that the UK will hold 8.85% of the world's meetings, placing it second in the top ten countries by market share of global meetings. The USA will lose its number one position and shall be replaced by Australia. The September 2000 Olympic Games have generated tremendous popularity for Australia as a destination for MICE activity, thus promoting it to the number one position.

With an increasing number of convention centre’s opening, the 1990s witnessed an increasingly competitive market, which is still growing. As competition increases, UK towns and cities have to become increasingly competitive in order to win lucrative conference business. The British Conference Market Trends Survey (1998) suggests that the greatest number of conventions (73%) is corporate, and that corporate delegates are the greatest daily spenders (£46). However, the association conferences hold the largest conferences, with an average of 83 delegates per conference, and have the greatest duration (1.63 days).

The Exhibition Venue Association (EVA) survey for 1999 represents two-thirds of all exhibitions recorded and includes the majority of large exhibitions in the UK. The EVA summary for 1998 states that the total number of exhibitions recorded in venues of 2000m2 or more was 843. The gross hall space occupied by the 843 exhibitions in 1998 was estimated to be 6.1 million m2, slightly less than the previous year's figures. The number of exhibitions occupying more that 6,000m2 of gross space was the same for 1998 as for 1997, at 268 (EVA, 1999). It is estimated that there were 10.994 million visitors to the 843 exhibitions in 1998, the highest number recorded to date. London hosted approximately one third of the exhibitions recorded in ten venues and the West Midlands hosted a quarter of all exhibitions recorded in five venues The total spend by exhibitors on exhibitions in 1997 is estimated to be £850 million (EVA, 1998). Table 3 shows that over 50% of the exhibitions were trade exhibitions.

The below figures promote the importance and the potential growth of the incentive industry within the UK. At present, the incentive industry has little coverage in academic research, as it is very difficult to establish precise figures on the size and value of the market. However, in 1993 the potential for the UK Incentive industry was highlighted by a report carried out on the behalf of SITE (Society of Incentives and travel Executives). The report stated that the UK and Irish incentive market are still at its infancy stage and has the potential to develop considerably. It has the potential to grow to a o1.5bn a year industry. The survey was carried out by interviews with 30 companies. The results showed that 48% of all companies interviewed uses incentive travel to motivate their employees (Travel Industry Monitor, November, 1993, p.6.). O'Brien (1997) carried out a major survey on the incentive travel to the UK and Ireland. His main findings showed that the demand for incentive travel is strongly correlated with economic prosperity at both company and national level. In 1995 the inbound incentive travel market to the UK and Ireland was worth an estimated o184million a to the UK and £IR30million to Southern Ireland, (Figures quoted included hotel, ground travel arrangements and traveller's expenditure but exclude air transportation costs). The UK domestic incentive travel market is relatively small and was worth only £24m in 1995 O'Brien (1997). The US generates 50% of the entire inbound incentive travel market to the UK and Ireland. The average trip expenditure per US incentive visitor is £2,320 (O'Brien, 1997). The British Association of Conference Destinations estimate that inbound incentive travel has been growing at approximately 5% a year for the past three years. The UK should maintain its high share of incentive visitors because of its unique cultural, heritage, scenic, and sporting infrastructure (BACD factsheet 4 1999).

One of the key factors behind London's success as a MICE destination is that the capital has its own convention bureau, 'London Convention Bureau' (LCB). It provides information and advice on MICE organizers, as well as providing information for anyone planning a MICE event, offering to organize site inspections, and bid documents for large international conventions. The LCB had eight major convention venues around London, 11 exhibition centres and have over 150 convention hotels which are associate members of the organization (Convention & Exhibition 2000). London is also a member of many leading international MICE organizations such as; the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE); the British Association of Conference Destinations (BACD); the European Federation of Conference Towns (EFCT); the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA); the Meeting Professionals International (MPI); the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA); the Society of Incentive Travel Executives (SITE) and the Union of International Associations (UIA) (cited in Convention and Exhibition 2000). All of which contribute to providing an outstanding MICE sector in London.

London is the world's third most popular international convention destination city hosting major international exhibitions and conferences.

London remains a key destination attracting more meetings than almost any other capital worldwide. The value of conference business in London is approximately £2billion. London attracts approximately 60% of the total overseas convention visitors to the UK (IPS, 1997 cited in BACD, factsheet 4, 1999). The top five conference destinations outside London are Harrogate, which generates £108 million through a combination of conference and exhibition revenue, followed by Brighton and Hove, which generate 80 million from conferences alone. The value of business from conventions in Bournemouth is £65 million, £41.1 million in Edinburgh, and £41 million in York.

There are numerous reasons why London is so successful at holding MICE events which are outlined below. The following section will consider the key reasons for this success. London's popularity is due to many factors, such as the ease of access by air, many headquarters of international companies being located in the capital. London is the world centre for finance, banking, insurance, commodity trading, fashion, arts and culture to name a few. A number of facilities in the capital are constantly being refurbished and improved and new facilities are being built. London may be the third most popular destination for holding a conference internationally, but the capital is losing valuable international exhibitions to foreign competitors due to the lack of space within the city.

At present, the MICE sector throughout the UK is successful in generating large amounts of capital for the economy. The success of the UK market looks set to continue for at least another decade. However, it is apparent that there is a need for larger exhibition space is the capital. Insufficient purpose-built facilities are preventing the UK as a whole and London as a MICE destination responding to the international demand. BACD (factsheet 6- Sept 1998) stated, "it is perhaps, inevitable that, with the substantial increase in competition from around the world, there would be some erosion in the UK's market share." However, there are warning signs suggesting that the UK's MICE sector may decline if certain actions are not taken. To prevent this, the recently appointed London Mayor Ken Livingstone, and the Labour Government, should provide capital and greater support for the MICE sector. Money is needed to improve facilities and infrastructure, and providing adequate training for people who work in the MICE industry. Greater academic research is needed on the MICE industry in general and on the capital in particular. London also needs a better co-ordinated and commercially driven marketing campaign to promote London as a MICE destination. New exhibition facilities such as Excel, and convention hotels such as the Stakis Metropole Hotel are steps forward in the right direction. However, more expenditure is needed in London and larger facilities are required if the capital is to maintain its position as a leading conference destination.

However it is up to the Government for greater support so that the MICE industry can proceed to grow in the United Kingdom.

Task 5. Reading.

MICE industry in Russia.

Read the text and answer the questions below:

1. What period is largely viewed as a spring point of the contemporary MICE services market in Russia?

2. What services are considered as obligatory complementary in the market for MICE?

3. What stands behind the phrase “corporate-events-related travelling”?

4. Why is the importance of catering highlighted?

5. What is the future trend for MICE in Russia?

MICE Industry in Russia

( Kim Waddoup, CEO, Moscow International MICE Forum )

"The Russia MICE industry has become an important area for international suppliers with large groups travelling to exotic destinations."

Indeed, the 1990s are largely viewed as the ‘birth period’ of the contemporary MICE services market in Russia as we know it today. Even now, at the height of the current global crisis, the market for MICE and obligatory complementary services, such as translations services, catering, transportation, security and others — as shown by the strong attendance of local and foreign CEOs and heads of states/governments at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum that ran from June 4-6 at the LenExpo Center, a major MICE facility — is one of the fastest growing industrial sectors both domestically and globally, and also one of the most frequent reasons for going on business trips and corporate-events-related travelling, both within and outside Russia. Therefore, the successful organization and outcomes of such business trips naturally require the services of different professionals from across almost all economic sectors, from hospitality, transportation, visa, real-estate to security and entertainment services providers, etc.

The importance of catering for this class of travelers is highlighted by the fact that business travelers spend between three and 10 times higher than ordinary tourists and, as noted by the Association of Russian Hotels, account for up to 50% of most hotels’ annual revenues (see The annual budgets for MICE events). Understandably, most MICE services providers — hotels, translators, caterers, conference premises owners, event managers, etc — are factoring these trends into their standard service package offers to potential clients as they try to maximize the profit opportunities that come from the rising demand for MICE facilities and complementary services.

The demand for MICE services in Russia is growing and the current market trends have indicated that the industry has a bright future, despite the current crisis.

Task 6. Find out information about the history of MICE Industry in other countries.